Pink Grapefruit Sorbet

Grapefruit sorbet. My mouth waters every time I think about it, which has been often, ever since my Bertolli food tour in the North End when I sampled some at Gigi Gelateria. It was sweet, sour, refreshing, and palate cleansing and I knew I needed more in my life. Despite the recent influx of ice cream recipes that have come into my life and this blog, I actually prefer sorbet. I think it stems from my 20-year dairy allergy. When everyone else was enjoying cake and ice cream at birthday parties growing up, or going out for ice cream, my favorite standby was a big scoop of raspberry sorbet with rainbow sprinkles. Nine times out of ten, I still prefer that over a scoop of creamy ice cream. So why has it taken me so long to use my amazing ice cream maker to make sorbet!?

I scanned the world wide web for grapefruit sorbet recipes. Some contained champagne, or lavender. Some required you to make simple syrup. I wanted easy. Two ingredient easy. So I made up my own:

Ingredients:

4 pink grapefruits

½ cup of sugar

Instructions:

Peel rind and thick white pith from four grapefruits.

In a blender, puree the grapefruits and sugar.

Seriously, this couldn’t be easier.

After blending, I realized I need to start making smoothies with grapefruits in them. I love that the mixture was sweet and sour and still had grapefruit pulp, which I kept in (other recipes might recommend you strain it out). I cooled this mixture in the fridge for a few hours before pouring it into my frozen ice cream bowl and churning away.

Minutes later I had the most refreshing, mouth-puckering scoop of grapefruit sorbet. Funk is not a fan of grapefruit, which means I get the entire batch to myself! The grapefruits I had were tiny (out of season, oops!) but this made about 3-4 cups of sorbet. If you like it slushy, eat it right away. If you prefer a little more solid, put it in the freezer for a bit. You can also easily make sorbetwithout an ice cream maker.

What flavor should I try next? I’m thinking I should take advantage of summer berries and melons. Another sour flavor like lime might be fun too! Have any favorite sorbets?

This sorbet is so refreshing! Let me know if you get a chance to make it. I should have noted – I did pick out the seeds before blending. I suppose if you have a high powered blender, it can just pulverize the seeds and I think grapefruit seeds are fine to ingest! But picking them out wasn’t difficult either.

I liked the idea of really easy, so I made a batch without taking out the seeds. My blender did pulverize them but the result was not so great. Very bitter. So for the second batch, I removed all the seeds but also the membranes. I figured as long as I was going to the trouble, I would go the extra step (though it was fairly time consuming). The result: Fantastic! Nice and sour; just a little sweet. Other recipes usually call for 2-4 times the sugar.
The main reason I was drawn to your recipe in the first place, is that you leave in all the pulp. Most just use the juice. For the next batch, I’ll try with membranes in and just seeds removed. I think it will be great.

I’m so glad you tried it and loved it! I’m not sure why all the other recipes strain out the pulp – I think it adds great texture (and fiber!). It’s the perfect dessert to make with grapefruit in season.